O'Sullivan previously won New Zealand Book Awards poetry
prizes in 1999, for Seeing You Asked, and 2005, for
Nice morning for it, Adam.

He also won the 1994 fiction award for his novel Let the
River Stand.

Dunedin-born-and-raised writer Charlotte Randall, who now
lives on Banks Peninsula, was short-listed in this year's
fiction category for The Bright Side of my Condition,
which is based on a true story about four escaped Norfolk
Island convicts who were deposited on the Snares, south of
Stewart Island.

The winner of the New Zealand Book of the Year will be
announced in Wellington on August 17.

The finalists are. -

Fiction:The Bright Side of my Condition by
Charlotte Randall, The Last Days of the National
Costume by Anne Kennedy, The Luminaries by Eleanor
Catton, Max Gate by Damien Wilkins.

Poetry:Gathering Evidence by Caoilinn Hughes,
Heartland by Michele Leggott, Horse with Hat by
Marty Smith, Us, then by Vincent O'Sullivan.

Illustrated non-fiction:Coast:A New
Zealand journey by Bruce Ansley and Jane Ussher, Greer
Twiss: Sculptor by Greer Twiss, Dr Robin Woodward and
Haru Sameshima, New Zealand and the First World War
1914-1919 by Damien Fenton, Promoting Prosperity: The
art of early New Zealand advertising by Peter Alsop and
Gary Stewart.

General non-fiction:A History of Silence by
Lloyd Jones, Peter McLeavey: The life and times of a New
Zealand art dealer by Jill Trevelyan, The Mighty
Totara: The life and times of Norman Kirk by David Grant,
Tragedy at Pike River Mine by Rebecca Macfie.

Booksellers' choice:Beyond the State: New Zealand
state houses from modest to modern, by Bill McKay, Andrea
Stevens and Simon Devitt, Molesworth: Stories from New
Zealand's largest high-country station by Harry Broad and
Rob Suisted, The Beginner's Guide to Hunting and Fishing
in New Zealand by Paul Adamson, The Luminaries by
Eleanor Catton.